Trees, dirt, and the sound of howling wind told me we weren’t in New Orleans proper anymore. The ground below was dark, too dark to make out much beyond the forest floor. Leaves crunched as he began walking, not stopping to put me down. His breathing was quick, harsh.

“Hey! What are you doing—” I snapped, kicking at him. He reached up and swatted my ass. Another flare of pain ignited in my chest where my brand pulsed. My hips bucked against his hand—that he hadn’t removed. He squeezed tightly through the little black number I wore, a growl starting deep in his chest. I smacked my hands against his own backside, my interest perking up at the hard muscle I found there. Once again, the strength I could sometimes display was gone—leaving me weak to Julian’s manhandling.

“I would not keep fighting me if I were you, Ruby,” he said quietly.

It was only then that I homed in on the dangerous emotions swirling in his chest. They were no longer closed off like the last time I saw him when the beast handily took out the four of them. Now he was wide open, a mix of anger and fear and a need so sharp it was painful.

I’d known he was jealous because he wanted me as the others did, but I’d never realized how much. Just how deep it ran.

I’d once said if he wanted a woman that not even Heaven or Hell could separate them. Little did I know then how true that was.

“What are you going to do to me, Julian?” I asked, my voice more than a little unsteady. I blamed it on the blood running to my head from being held upside down this long.

“What do you think I should do to you, Ruby?” he asked in return.

Devil fuck me. The things his voice did to me. Another spasm of pain ran through me, straight to the apex of my thighs. I let out a desperate mewling sound and Julian stiffened. His hand trailed over the back of my thighs, singeing my sensitive skin with fire. I squirmed, trying to get out of his hold, but he held tight, never giving me an inch.

“Stop fucking with me, Julian. You’re being an ass,” I snapped in a heated frustration. A sharp jolt went through me as his hand came down hard on my ass.

Did he just spank me…?

“Yes, I did. And I’m going to do a lot more than that if you keep testing me.”

There we go again with that nifty mind-speak thing, except he could hear mine apparently. I grumbled under my breath and deflated a little bit. His hand flattened against me, gently rubbing over my now blazing ass.

I wanted to send another string of curses at him, but this felt good. In a strange, fucked-up kind of way. Pain can be pleasure after all, if administered correctly. He slipped his fingers just beneath my dress, into the thin panties. I squirmed again, not quite comfortable with how intimate this felt given I couldn’t see him or move. His fingers expertly slid over one cheek and down the center, entering my heated skin.

“Do you know how you smell to me?” Julian asked quietly.

He slipped two fingers into my wet folds, pressing down to hit my G-spot as he pushed them in and out. I let out a low moan, turned on so much by his aggressive nature. He could be as cold as he fucking wanted as long as his fingers kept doing what they were doing.

“Did you know that your very scent changed the night the beast came forward because you had subconsciously chosen me as a potential mate?”

No. I didn’t know that, but I also didn’t really care. He pressed down, rubbing in circles. Slow. He was going excruciatingly slow.

What the hell was wrong with him?

Fire lanced through me, very real this time as my frustration grew. I smiled wickedly at the smell of burning cloth.

Julian removed his fingers and slapped my ass.

“Don’t fucking try it.”

I growled at him and slapped his ass back. It’s not like I could fucking control it. I was in the middle of the transition and he was fucking playing with me, going on about how I smell when I just wanted him to fuck me.

“You’ll be fucked when I decide to fuck you,” Julian snapped.

What the–

Did I say that out loud?

“No, but your mind is wide open—and before you think it—no, I don’t give a shit that you can’t control it either.”

Ass.

That got me another slap on my backside.

Bastard. I arched my back and brought my elbow up and around, contacting with the back of his skull. Julian let out a groan, his grip slipping, and I swiftly kicked him in the jewels.

Had these fuckers learned nothing? The beast and I shook our heads in annoyance as breath whooshed from his lips. I toppled sideways, my back hitting the hard ground beneath me. I groaned as sticks punctured my skin uncomfortably, and then jumped to my feet.

I took off into the trees without waiting to see him follow. Part of me knew I wouldn’t get very far. It was pitch black outside. The entire place was nothing but shadow—which meant this was his element. Still, the rest of me was annoyed with him for this manhandling bullshit. He could have just taken me how I wanted, but instead he throws me over his shoulder and acts like an asshat. I wasn’t inclined to make a single part of this easy for him after the last week.

I ran blindly into the woods, not daring to look behind even as he shouted at me.

“You do not want to play this game with me, Ruby! It’s only going to make it worse when I do get you. You played with Death, and it’s time to pay up.”

Too late, motherfucker. You should have thought about that before—

Agh!

My feet snagged on a root sending me face first into the forest floor.

“Devil-damned—motherfucking—cunt-kissing—asshole—” My string of curses was cut off sharply by my body being flipped over against my will.

I stared up at Julian’s pale form standing over me. Even in the dark I could see his eyes blazing with fury.

“I told you not to run,” he glowered.

I stared back, all smartass retorts drying up on my tongue. He was shirtless—why was he shirtless? Didn’t he know that a girl can’t think straight with all those perfectly defined abs just waiting to be licked—

A smirk tugged at his lips.

Shit! I was doing that mind thing again. I just knew it. Julian held out his hand for me to take it. Part of me wanted to, but the rest of me knew not to be swayed but such a simple gesture. His rage and desire were eating him alive from the inside out, bleeding into me.

I slapped his hand away and moved to stand, only to find myself lifted and my back slammed against a tree. I gasped, trying to feel my way up from down. I only knew it was a tree because of the rough bark scraping at my back. Julian was gripping my hips way tighter than necessary, and there was no getting out of it this time.

“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he commanded.

“Fuck you,” I spat.

Did I really mean that? I don’t know. His emotions were out of control, which was sending mine out of control.

“Ruby, do not fucking push me right now—”

And what do I do?

I slap him.

Full on bitch-slap to the face, and apparently my seriously not reliable super-strength had come back because his face whipped around as the crack echoed into the night.

Whatever burning fury he felt before was nothing to what would come next.

Slowly, so slowly that my anxiety inched up another ten notches, he turned his head back toward me and I saw it: the awful turbulence of emotions in his eyes. The emotions that he didn’t know how to hide from me any longer. Just as I couldn’t seem to keep my thoughts from him.

I sensed it in him. The shift. So sudden and swift. He lowered one hand to my bare thigh, hoisting it up around his waist, followed by the other. His cock twitched against me as he rubbed me through the thin material of my panties with the hard friction of his jeans. Even though it went against everything inside of me, I moaned, my back arching off the tree as the desire clashed hot and hard against the burning anger inside me.

“Do you hate me?”

I don’t know what possessed me to say it. Probably the tornado of emotions running through me, angry and unforgiving. That’s how it felt inside.

But his—his felt like a volcano, the pressure boiling and just waiting to erupt.

Still, the moment the words left my lips, Julian paused and the look he gave me…it was broken. So broken.

And that’s when I knew.

“I wish I did. It would make my job so much easier,” he whispered. His breath was cool as the arctic when it fanned my face. He reached up and brushed a stray lock of blue hair away from my face. “I can’t hate you, Ruby. Not even when you—” He broke off, swallowing hard. There it was again, that vulnerability he covered with fury. “Not even when you ran from us. You let the beast in, and you ran from us. We had no idea where you were. We couldn’t find you—and when we did, you were with that—that male.” His voice came to a stop, his eyes darkening once more and it all made sense. He slipped his hand down the side of my face, his fingers applying pressure to my throat as he held me there.

“You think I…” I paused, watching the anger in his gaze fizzle up again like a darkness he couldn’t shake. “I healed Eugene’s soul. That is why he was with me. You should know by now that I’m not interested in anyone else, Julian.” My voice was soft. A reprimand, but gentle. Kind, if not for the slight growl at the end. The beast wanted to throttle him for being a territorial idiot.

His hold on my throat loosened as he swept his thumb across my jawline almost…tenderly.

“You can’t see him again,” Julian insisted. Completely irrational, as always.

“You can’t tell me who I can and can’t see,” I replied.

I didn’t care to see him again, but it was the principle. They needed to learn this and learn it now. I was not taking orders from them. If we were equals, then damnit, they needed to treat me like it.

Julian dropped his hand from my throat, sliding it down to rest over my chest.

“I don’t like other males near you.”

Really, Sherlock? I couldn’t have guessed. Julian’s lips thinned as he stared at me. Yeah, he heard it. I didn’t give a shit.

“Eugene is gay, Julian. You’re being unreasonable.”

He blinked. “I still don’t like it.”

I brought my hand up to smack myself in the forehead. Were we really doing this?

“I don’t like a lot of things, but you don’t see me being a dick about it. Maybe instead of being an ass, you should give me a reason to stick around and not feel the need to leave, then I won’t be running into other demons.”

Julian seemed to consider this before he asked, “What kind of reason?”

He leaned forward, his breath grazed just below my ear, sending a wave of chills over me. I groaned. His lips pressed against my throat as he brushed them up and down.

“What kind of reason, Ruby?”

Oh fucking hell. His mood swings were giving me whiplash.

“You could stop being a jealous prick and make a move if you want to be with me.”

Why had I just phrased it that way? Great mood killer, Ruby. You and your socially awkward mouth.

“And spanking my ass doesn’t count,” I added.

Julian didn’t even seem perturbed by me calling him on it. On the other hand, he seemed a lot more at ease once I cleared away his fears of Eugene—although I wasn’t apologizing for running. Not over my dead body.

“I rather like spanking your ass,” he replied, his erection digging into me.

He slid his hand back to my throat and tightened it. It wasn’t enough to choke, but the possessiveness that lay beneath it was clear.

And you know what? I liked it.

In fact, I kind of loved it.

But I wasn’t letting him off that easy.

“And I like not being treated like a child.”

For some reason, I felt like I needed to push this because as soon as the clothes came off, I would be a goner. And they were coming off. Very soon. That much I was sure of.

Another lance of pain slashed through my chest, stronger this time. Fire tore through the forest as I cried out in an excruciating pain that was tinged with the briefest of pleasures.

I didn’t understand what was going on. I’d gone days in transition without this happening. What had changed? What had—

Guilt.

It bled through from the only other living creature around me as Julian held me tighter, rocking his hips into mine. The contact made it better, more bearable, even as the fire grew out of control and began to incinerate our clothes.

If I thought I was out of control before, that was nothing compared to this.

“What did you do?” I moaned, knowing that he was somehow at fault. Julian swallowed hard as he ran his hands up and down my bare flesh. It made the pain better, but this time it wasn’t completely abating.

“I’m…I’m sorry, Ruby. I didn’t know what to do—” his voice broke off as a scream built in my chest. His touch helped, but it wasn’t enough. Whatever he had done was making the transition a thousand times worse.

I thrashed against him as images filled my mind. Images of him and the others. Images of blood being spilled. Images and snapshots of what he did.

That fucker.

He’d bound me. Truly bound me. Except he didn’t bind me in a circle. Oh no, he didn’t have the power for that once I had left, so he did the next best thing.

He bound me to him. As long as I was in the transition, my body needed his. Begging for his touch to the point of pain if I didn’t fulfill it.

He wanted to make sure I didn’t run again, and he bound us together so that I couldn’t.

“You motherfucking, cock-sucking, son of a—”

His mouth descended on mine, hard and insistent. I stayed frozen to the spot at first, not wanting to give in despite what my body and heart so desperately desired, but that’s the thing about this bond. It made him a drug to me—

The thought was snatched away before I could see it and I growled at him. Julian knew that he couldn’t hide now. Not after what he’d done.

I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around his neck. I clasped my hands flat over the back of his neck, pulling him to me before I dove into his mind.

His kiss turned rough—savage—as he pushed me back into the already burning tree. Our clothes were all but ash at this point, and his bare erection was hard against my skin as it slid over me without entering.

He groaned, his nails biting into my thighs as I nipped at his bottom lip.

“What’s the rest of it, Julian?” I asked breathlessly, slipping a hand to cup his jaw, leaving the other on the back of his neck. “There was more to what you did, and you took the memory away before I could see it. What are you still trying to keep from me?”

Ignoring me, he sank his teeth into my shoulder, and it wasn’t just an act of passion. He wanted to mark me. To make me his. He trailed his lips up my jaw and down my throat.

“What did you fucking do, Julian?” I asked one last time.

I really didn’t want to test how well I could go through his mind. It felt like an invasion of privacy, but if he wouldn’t tell me, I would do it. After all, he was the one who took my choice away and used fucking blood magic to bind my body to his. Not that I didn’t want it long before he did so, but the act itself was still dancing on the hairsbreadth edge of right and wrong.

Julian growled as I fisted his hair and writhed against him. He rocked into me as kama started pouring out from him. It filled the air around me and I breathed it in, relishing the crisp cut that tore through my throbbing core.

Damn him, he was addictive.

The tree behind me cracked and I began to topple backwards as the massive oak no longer supported our weight, but instead of hitting the forest floor, my back hit something soft and I could feel the smooth sheets and comforter beneath me.

The room was black as pitch and my flames had stopped burning at some point. I moved to pull back, but Julian gripped me tightly, biting into my other shoulder.

“What the fuck—”

My body shuddered as his hardness rubbed against the sensitive bundle of nerves that left me moaning. There was pleasure in pain if done right. Wasn’t that what I always had said?

How right I was.

“We had to find you, so I did the only thing I could do,” he whispered against my neck and then the scene opened up again.

He knelt in a dark room, and a girl—a girl I recognized—stood before him. Her white blonde hair barely shifted as she leaned forward and cut his skin. Then she used his blood to draw the runes. The runes that would pull me to him.

So that I would feel what he feels. So that once he touched me, I would crave him for the remainder of the transition. So that I couldn’t run. Even if I left this planet, he would find me. He would always find me.

But the blood magic wasn’t so simple as to give him everything with nothing in return.

To form the bond, all barriers between us would become non-existent. I would feel what he feels…and in return, he would endure my pain should I run or resist.

The intense burning that filled my chest also filled his. The pain he felt was now mine.

He’d all but chained me to him, and in doing so, chained himself to me too.

All to keep me safe…well, not quite, but mostly. His desires were thick and raw and filled with such sweet agony. He wanted to do things to me, things he tried to protect me from.

None of the Horsemen were good men, Julian especially, and I’d broken whatever control he had when I left them.

The worry ate at him. The fury clawed. It shattered all pretenses that he held that kept him from crawling to my bed and led him to making a bargain with the girl who could do blood magic.

To get me and to keep me, he all but opened his soul.

I should be furious. I should fight him, and the beast, with every ounce of my being because of the kind of male Julian was. Because the type of possessive behaviors I’d run from my whole life ran deep in him.

But he wasn’t just Death.

He was Julian.

My Julian. The one who would do anything to protect me, even come to terms with himself and the truth he already knew.

I was his greatest weakness, and yet, staying away from me—even for me—was never an option. The beast and I chose him as a mate and he accepted it. I was his, in every sense of the word.

But he was also mine, and that kind of surrender didn’t come naturally to Death. He forced my hand, but in doing so, he finally made up his goddamn mind.

Was it strange that I was almost happy he had done this? Desire may be its own demon that demands you feed it, but so was love—even the twisted kind. I wondered if this was a bit of both because he and I were finally on the same page.

I ran my fingers through his hair and it was softer than I expected. I tugged his head so that I could pull him up and he acquiesced, resettling his weight by moving both arms above my head.

“I understand,” I whispered.

He stared down, his eyes so dark they didn’t even look green. I wanted to say more, but another pain lanced through my chest. This one worse than the others before. I let out an awful throat-straining scream. My back arched off the bed as I simultaneously tried to get closer to him and crawl out of my skin. I understood why he had done it, but the pain he put me in—the pain he put us both in—was immeasurable. I don’t know how he was bearing it without cringing. Tears blotted the corners of my eyes as my body twisted, trying to break away from the torment even though I knew I couldn’t.

“Make it stop,” I begged. “Please make it stop.”

There was only one way it would. He and I both knew that now.

Julian pulled back off the bed causing it to worsen. I clawed at my chest and he snatched my hands, pulling them away.

“Sit and don’t move,” he commanded.

I did as I was told, sitting on the edge of the bed. He released my hands and knocked my legs apart with his knee. I trembled with anticipation, widening my legs without needing further instruction as he kneeled in front of me. He leaned forward and softly kissed the brand between my breasts, the bone-splintering pain lessening, dulling. I brought my hands around to rest on his shoulders. Contact was helping.

His lips trailed down my naked chest, over my abdomen, straight to the aching heat between my legs. He grasped one of my thighs and pulled it over his shoulder, lightly blowing on my clit. A ragged gasp escaped my lips as he leaned forward and continued blowing as he buried two fingers inside me. I rubbed my hands over his shoulders and down his back, scratching him with my nails. He growled against me and my hips surged forward, but he held me still as he ran his tongue over me.

The oddest sensation filled me as the beast internally guided my hands to the back of his neck. A burning sensation rippled through me, and once again, I was too late to realize it was happening. Julian knew, and he stopped as the fire burned between us.

Where I should have been crying out in release, I nearly sobbed in desperation as I branded him. I was so fucking close when the burning receded, but a small part of me had the good sense to not scream at him. He was going to fuck me, of that I was certain.

“You branded me,” he murmured.

Was that awe in his voice? Couldn’t be…I tried to write it off, but it wasn’t so easy when his emotions flooded me.

“Don’t act so surprised,” I snapped, not nearly as apologetic as I’d been when it happened with Laran or Allistair. Julian bound me without asking. He was already in this for life. His ass didn’t get an apology. He laughed, pulling away.

“What are you doing?” I groaned, spreading my legs wider to show just how desperate I was.

“Turn around and get on your hands and knees,” he ordered.

Whereas Laran and I had been interrupted, Julian had every intention of fucking me sore before the other Horsemen caught up to us. Wherever we were. That was a different question for after I came.

I pulled back onto the bed and did as he told me. The bed dipped as Julian got on behind me. He lifted the hair from my neck and pulled it taut.

“Lift yourself up. I want to feel you,” his voice rumbled huskily.

My stomach muscles contracted as I pulled myself up, my back coming flush against his chest. He wrapped an arm around my waist, placing his hand over my stomach. I pushed my ass back, trying to rub against him. Clearly it wasn’t as alluring as I thought when he let out a dark chuckle.

“What do you want, Ruby?” he asked, his voice no more than a whisper in my ear.

“You know what I want, asshole,” I growled.

My breath hissed between my teeth as I felt a sharp smack on my sex. It stung, but this kind of pain felt good.

“You’re being a brat. We’ll need to work on that.”

I shivered against his words, but not in fear. He may have been more savage when it came to pleasure, but I felt nothing but safe with him. So, I kept my mouth shut this time.

“Much better.” I could hear the grin in his voice. “Now, what do you want?”

The pain in my chest ripped through me, shredding through any snarky retorts I had left.

“You!” I screamed.

Julian growled in approval and then he released me. My shaking limbs were barely holding me with all the tension coiled in my muscles. The lightest tap on my back was all it took for me to fall forward, landing on my elbows, face down. My legs shook with anticipation as his head touched my entrance. He thrust once, filling me in one go. I moaned into the sheets as I fisted them, biting down on the smooth fabric as my body nearly came apart.

What in Satan’s name—how big was he? It’s not like I was a virgin, but damn. I hadn’t been fucked in years. May as well be. Still, when he pulled out, that familiar heat flared in me, still so close to the edge. He slammed back into me and I rocked forward.

I barely registered my hair being lifted as Julian wound it around his palm. He gripped it, pulling it taut, wrapping his arm around my torso, guiding my body up so that I was right where he wanted me.

And he thrust into me. Again, and again, and again.

With my back arched and his hand splayed across my abdomen, I lost myself to sensation as he pounded into me. I didn’t even feel the climax creeping up before it tore through my system, making me clamp around him as I shuddered with relief and screamed his name.

He liked this. I could sense it as he continued to pump into me, chasing his own release. I pulled on the kama around me, inhaling deep breaths as I pushed my ass back, giving myself to him wholly. He thrust into me once more and roared. The wood panels above us shook under the force of his power. I thought he was going to level the house.

When the trembling stopped, and our breathing calmed, he let go of me. I fell forward on weak knees.

“You can’t possibly think I’m done with you yet,” his breath whispered over me.

The beast purred, and she wasn’t the only one.

It was going to be a long night.